Customers were unable to access their Lloyds Bank, Halifax or Bank of Scotland mobile apps on the morning of 31 July, prompting widespread disruption during one of the busiest financial periods of the month. The outage came just ahead of payday, leading to frustration and concerns over missed payments.
The simultaneous crash of mobile services across all three brands, each part of the Lloyds Banking Group, has raised questions about system reliability. While some users speculated about the possibility of a cyberattack, early indications suggest a technical fault following a recent software update.
Mobile Banking Outage at Peak Time
The issue began around 5am and affected thousands of customers attempting to use mobile banking services. According to Downdetector, Lloyds received roughly 780 outage reports, Halifax 402, and Bank of Scotland 73. A majority of complaints came from iOS users, who described app crashes upon launch.
The timing caused particular problems for those attempting to complete time-sensitive transactions. Social media was quickly filled with posts from users struggling to manage bill payments or access funds. Several noted that the disruption mirrored previous outages that occurred earlier in 2025.
No Cyberattack Confirmed
Lloyds Banking Group confirmed that some customers were experiencing intermittent login issues and advised users to try again later. A spokesperson stated that 'our app is functional for most users' but stopped short of identifying a cause, The Sun reported.
No evidence of a cyberattack has been disclosed. The bank pointed to similarities with a disruption in May 2025, which was eventually linked to a scheduled internal systems test and found to involve no malicious interference.
Long‑standing IT Concerns Remain
Technical incidents have long plagued UK banks, including Lloyds. A Treasury Committee report released earlier this year revealed that financial institutions experienced 158 IT failures between January 2023 and February 2025, resulting in over 33 days of service disruption, according to The Guardian.
Lloyds previously admitted that underinvestment had contributed to ongoing issues. A December 2024 internal review acknowledged that the bank's digital infrastructure had struggled to keep pace with customer expectations, despite a planned £4 billion investment in technology upgrades by 2026, as reported by The Times.
Customer complaints routinely spike around payday, raising concerns that existing systems are unable to cope with transaction surges. Regulators have since mandated stronger cyber resilience standards and frequent system stress tests.
@LloydsBank are a joke. App not working on payday. That’s great. And yes, I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled, closed it, opened it. It’s just shit.
— Paul Cann (@Cann_UK) July 31, 2025
Still crashes every time I open it and need to transfer money between accounts
— Rach 🐶🏁🥁🌊🌅 (@Rachybobbles) July 31, 2025
It’s not even getting to the log on stage, it opens for a few seconds then disappears, tried five times this morning, very frustrating!
— Phil Harrison Blackpool (@phil_blackpool) July 31, 2025
No Indication of Hacking
Despite speculation, no evidence has emerged to suggest the incident was caused by cybercrime. Past disruptions have more commonly stemmed from faulty software updates or technical misconfigurations. In a major February 2025 outage, both Lloyds and Halifax attributed the failure to internal system errors.
Chief Operating Officer Ron van Kemenade has previously described Lloyds' IT infrastructure as 'like living in a neglected house'. While efforts are underway to modernise systems, repeated failures highlight lingering operational vulnerabilities.
What Customers Can Do
Affected individuals are advised to document any failed transactions or financial losses and contact customer service to file a complaint. Compensation may be available for missed payments, overdraft charges, or other direct impacts, The Scottish Sun reported.
Unresolved complaints can be escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Consumer advocacy groups also recommend maintaining a secondary account or alternative payment method to guard against future service failures.
While a cyberattack has not been confirmed, the disruption highlights the fragility of digital banking platforms and the continued need for robust, reliable infrastructure, especially during critical financial periods.
